


In the Beginning

by rosabelle



Category: Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 09:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2144988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosabelle/pseuds/rosabelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The agreed-upon story of how Andros met Zhane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SailorSol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/gifts).



They learned more about Andros in the first day after Zhane's unexpected awakening than in the entire month preceding it. He'd become gradually more open and less standoffish as they'd all grown accustomed to each other's presence, and his recent behavior could have even been described as downright friendly, but he still kept most things to himself.  
  
Such as the fact that his recent excursion to Onyx hadn't been his first time on the planet, nor had it been the first time that he'd had to leave in a hurry.  
  
Zhane told them the story over breakfast one morning.  
  
"It wasn't my fault," he insisted, as Zhane neared the end of a tale that involved narrowly escaping a drunken mob on horseback.  
  
Cassie still wasn't entirely sure if "on horseback" meant that Andros and Zhane were riding horses themselves for... some reason that Zhane hadn't made clear to them, or if they were being pursued by people on horses, or why there were even horses on Onyx in the first place.    
  
"I was _trying_ to tell you that the drink you ordered wasn't really fit for human consumption. He never listens to me," Andros complained. He turned to Ashley. For sympathy, Cassie assumed.  
  
Straight-faced, she patted his arm.  
  
"You could've done it without insulting the bartender," Zhane informed him. "And you didn't _need_ to say "bring it on" afterwards."  
  
Beside her, Cassie heard TJ muffle a snort.  
  
"Hey." Andros frowned at him, then turned the bulk of his disapproval back to Zhane. "I never said that. I don't say that."  
  
TJ coughed.  
  
Ashley smirked.  
  
"Uh huh." Cassie was less restrained.  
  
"Riiiiight," Carlos said.  
  
"Sorry, Andros." Zhane leaned forward, waving his hand at the fruit platter in the center of the table. An orange flew to his empty hand. "They know you too well now. He's always been like this," he confided. "Ever since we were kids."  
  
"Wait," Ashley said. "You guys knew each other before you were Rangers?"  
  
Zhane nodded as he went to work peeling the orange. "Since we were eight."  
  
"You were eight," Andros said. "I was nine."  
  
"You realize that means you have less of an excuse."  
  
Andros shrugged.  
  
"Did you guys meet at school or something?" Carlos asked.  
  
Zhane set down his orange.  
  
Andros was suddenly intensely preoccupied with his last strip of bacon.  
  
Zhane's eyes glinted. "Well—"  
  
"It's not that exciting."  
  
"Says you."  
  
"I _am_ saying so," Zhane started again. "It was."  
  
"You realize you have to tell us now," Cassie said.  
  
"C'mon." Ashley elbowed Andros in the ribs. "I want to hear this."  
  
Andros sighed loudly and pushed his hair out of his face with one hand, but a smile tugged at his lips and he lifted one shoulder in acquiescence.  
  
"That's the spirit," Cassie said. "Okay. Go ahead, Zhane."  
  
He leaned in closer, telling them in a conspiratorial whisper, "I saved his life."  
  
"Hey," Andros protested.  
  
"What, is it hard to believe?"  
  
"That's not how it happened," Andros informed them.  
  
"Is too. If you want to make yourself look good, you can tell them the story about that time you saved me from a quantron attack on the way to school."  
  
"That never happened."  
  
"Yes it did."  
  
"It didn't."  
  
"Maybe you're right."  
  
Cassie caught Ashley's eye and shook her head. There were an awful lot of stories Andros and Zhane couldn't agree upon. Mostly frequently in question were the number of times each had rescued the other. Which of them had started the trouble in the first place was a close second.  
  
"Okay," Andros said. "Fine. If you want to know what really happened, _I_ saved _him_. That's how we met."  
  
As one, she and Ashley looked back to Zhane. He gave them a sheepish look in return.  
  
"He's exaggerating," they were informed. "But... that's mostly true."  
  
Andros mumbled something that sounded like " _entirely_ true."  
  
"So?" Ashley prompted, when it became clear that was all he meant to tell them. "How'd you do it?"  
  
"I..." Slowly, Andros closed his mouth. "Never mind."  
  
"Oh no," Cassie said. "Uh uh. You talked yourself into it."  
  
And he was looking like he sorely regretted it. Andros glared at TJ when he snickered again, and then turned back to Zhane. "You tell."  
  
"Actually... it really _isn't_ that exciting," Zhane said. "My family moved to Andros's town when we were kids. I must've made a bad impression on some of the other kids on my first day, because they pulled me aside after school to talk."  
  
"With their fists," Andros added, bristling, still indignant after all of these years.  
  
"Yeah, I think they got that. Anyway," Zhane went on. "Andros was on his way home when he saw the fight."  
  
Ashley clapped her hands together, and Cassie tried hard not to laugh. "So he saved you from the playground bullies? How many were there?"  
  
"Three," Zhane said. "All of them older and bigger than we were."  
  
"And he took them on by himself?"  
  
Andros hesitated before answering. "Yes."  
  
She had to ask. "And won?"  
  
Andros glared at her too.  
  
"He got two black eyes and a busted lip," Zhane said. "After that, I decided that we were going to be friends because he saved me, and that if he was going to rush into fights he wasn't going to win without thinking, I was going to be his backup because _somebody_ needed to be. That's how we met."  
  
The other four looked at each other. Then:  
  
"Yeah," TJ said. "I can see that."  
  
Carlos nodded. "Definitely."  
  
Andros sighed, but Cassie thought she saw him hide a reluctant smile.  
  
"That sorta reminds me of how I met TJ," Cassie said. "Except we were older, not in school, and we were already kind of friends for a couple of hours when we ran into Kat and Tommy and the piranhatrons."  
  
So... nothing like how she'd met TJ, then.  
  
"Are we telling stories now?" TJ asked. "Because—"  
  
"Cassie first," Ashley cut him off. " _Then_ you can tell Zhane about the time you got baked into a giant pizza."


End file.
